An end
by useless knowledge
Summary: Where there is a beginning there is an end. Kuroko began his life with basketball and it would ultimately be his end as well. *Spoilers for 238*


Everything begins, but that also means that everything has to end.

The life of Kuroko truly began when basketball was revealed to be an attainable dream, instead of one that lingered, just out of reach.

When he had basketball, he felt as if he were actually living. He was seen by the people that mattered, people he wanted to see him. These were the people whom he idolized, he wanted to play with, to help them achieve their dreams.

He loved these people with his whole heart and would do anything for them, anything to help. The limelight did not matter to him, just helping his beloved teammates was satisfying enough to him.

His teams took him to the highest points in his life, and the lowest, but he could at least feel human when he was with them. he felt his heart beating, beating for his love of basketball. Beating for his teammates.

Everything begins but then everything ends.

He went soaring as high as he could with his team, helping to lift them so high as the Winter Tournament. They were soaring and soaring till Kuroko's creator clipped his wings. That is when, everything came to an end.

The thing that made him stand out, but also cloaked him in secrets was taken from him. he no longer had the ability to help his team soar. He should have, he would have, but he didn't give up hope. Not yet. There was still hope.

While struggling to fly with his clipped wings, as players he respected looked down upon him in pity, a pair of scissors was driven through that birds heart.

His power was gone, but worse than that, he was replaced in a moment. This new bird was strong and aloof. He was better, more beautiful, a darker shadow, able to use his abilities when Kuroko's had failed him.

By the look on his face alone, one could tell that his heart was breaking as he watched this new player, formed by the same man who created him, excel where he was left behind once more. 4

The heartbreak of being replaced by one of the people he had respected most in the world was but a faint sliver to the pain that filled him when his team, the one he helped to rise, came crashing down.

They lost.

They lost the Winter tournament. They cried, they shook hands. Kuroko even had to shake the hand of the creator but also of the replacer.

From there, the end was ineluctable.

He came to practice and his team didn't blame him. They spent the time reassuring him that they didn't. But when they said this, they all had a look of pity in their eyes.

That pity stung like salt in a wound.

He tried to continue as best he could, trying to find a new way to be helpful, to rise them above the rest.

But there was no need for a bird with broken wings.

He regained his power, but in the worst way imaginable.

Not only was he no longer seen by the public, but also by his own team.

He was always benched, even during practice games among themselves. The conversations they had with him became less and less.

There was a point, when no one would even ask where Kuroko was and why he wasn't at practice. No one called to see if he was okay.

It was the second year of high school that he quit his dream, his love and his passion. He didn't want to make it hard on his beloved friends as they had to deal with his inability to play. Telling him that they wish they could let him play but….

But….

There was an unspoken truth…

But you're just not good enough.

It was his third year now, right as Winter Tournament was about to begin…..He had watched as all of his beloved friends made it back into the tournament….he watched them all excel without him….Ties were broken now that he no longer had his passion.

No one spoke to him, even the ones claiming to love him or that they were the best of friends.

No one.

Kuroko walked into the gym, listening to his shoes hit the ground.  
Clack. Clack. Clack.

He so wished for the sound of rubber soles grinding against the wooden floors and yells of plays instead of the horrible silence and the clack, clack, clack.

He walked over to the hoop, staring up at it with faded blue eyes. All the life was drained from those eyes.

He smiled bitterly. Back to the court, to the net.

Everything that begins, must end.

It wasn't till the next Monday did a janitor come to the gym to clean it.

This is where he found the a rope connected to the rim of the hoop, a tipped over chair, and a lifeless shadow.


End file.
